4LN Comic Review – The Unworthy Thor #1

Summary from Comixology: “The Odinson’s desperate search to regain his worthiness has taken him out into the cosmos, where he’s learned of the existence of a mysterious other Mjolnir. This weapon of unimaginable power, a relic from a dead universe, is the key to Odinson’s redemption — but some of the greatest villains of the Marvel Universe are now anxious to get their hands on it as well. Can The Odinson reclaim his honor, or will the power of thunder be wielded for evil? The quest for the hammer begins here.”

So Jason Aaron’s God of Thunder run is one of my all time favorite series. It not only reawakened my love for comics, but cemented Thor as one of my favorite heroes. Everything about it – from the villain, to plot, to the art (especially Esad Ribic’s) just clicked on every level. When my local shop put up their poster for The Unworthy Thor, my interest was piqued. I mean, Aaron just gets the character of Odinson (the god previously known as Thor), so I was looking forward to another series centering on the Thor from God of Thunder.

Let’s just say that Aaron knocks this book out of the park. I haven’t been following the most recent Thor series, but I’ve kept up with the overall story. This book opens with Odinson in a Sisyphean struggle to regain a Mjolnir (I say a Mjolnir because the cover shows the hammer carried by the Ultimates Thor), before going back three months to show us how he got in this predicament. Both the recap and the main story have that sense of epicness that I felt was lost when the title transitioned away from Odinson. I am not saying the other Thor was not good, just that Odinson has that extra mythological oomph that really pulls me in.

Aaron is not the only Thor alum on this creative team either. Olivier Coipel worked on several issues of J. Michael Straczynski’s run – the one that features Asgardia hovering over Broxton, Oklahoma. This little geographical tidbit endears me to that title. Because my family is from Oklahoma, and I love that fact that some podunk town in the Midwest had the gods of Asgard living alongside them. Seriously though, I was reading that series while visiting my family in Oklahoma and thought about going to Broxton just for fun, but Google Maps showed nothing but farmland. I didn’t even see a small-town diner. Aaaanyway, it’s really awesome to have Coipel back in action. I loved to see his take on this new version of Thor, and it’s fantastic. There is a lot more realism in the art this time around, which is a necessity with the overall style, and Coipel just nails it. The fight scenes are visceral, and the moonscape is damn near mythological in scope.

The art team also includes Russell Dauterman who is responsible for the pages in the preview. His art is freaking beautiful. The small battle scene that opens the book is almost worth the price of admission in and of itself. In a lot of ways, his art reminds me of a less stylized Juan Jose Ryp, and I love his art too.

When it’s all said and done, The Unworthy Thor #1 is a great start to a new series. There have only been a few books that immediately grabbed me and had me texting my comic shop owner to add it to my pull before the pages have shut. Kudos to Aaron and the rest of the creative team for bringing the thunder in Thor’s continued quest to regain his hammer.

Music Pairing:
I am not as well versed in music as my fellow 4LNers Stephen and Bill, but I did find listening to Immediate’s Trailerhead:Saga a good fit for the mythic scope of this title.

Cam Clark

Cam is a husband, father, and a fan of many things. In college, he wrote his senior thesis on Mythological, Philosophical, and Theological Themes in Star Wars, and now spends his days causally specializing in Star Wars, Tolkien, and cubical work. No relation to Bill Clark.